Hi! We're the media. We get a lot of press releases. Press releases are almost always bad. Especially those that come to our personal email inboxes. Here's a better idea: write an email to someone you know will care. Or don't! You could just blindly send out a bunch of crap and then bill your client for it. I mean, why not, right? It's not like some snarky asshole will publish your press release online, with derogatory inline notes. Oh wait.
From the inbox. To the Editors: I'm in Oslo (on one of the three days in the year anybody in the world pays attention to Norway-the other days are the day the prize is actually handed out and the day the entertainers at the Nobel Prize Concert are announced) and I can tell you the people who work in the relevant sections of the Foreign Ministry are extremely glad that their Nobel Committee did not award the Nobel Peace Prize to a Chinese dissident. There would have been diplomatic protests from testy Chinese, lots of troublesome questions, much work for diplomats! (Do not want!)
However, Norwegians are just as embarrassed [...]
From our inbox: [PUBLICIST] to notes@theawl.com 10:41 AM
Hi,
The Daily Beast posted a piece today about last night's Webutante Ball. Nick McGylnn summed it up pretty nicely, hope you were there!
The crowd in attendance was keeping up appearances. For startup stars and seasoned vets of the tech scene, cocktail attire and jaded excitement were de rigeur. "Internet Week is just starting," said Nick McGlynn, photographer and founder of RandomNightOut. "Anybody who's anybody is at this party right this second… including me."
Here's the link: http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-06-09/chic-geeks/
Best, [PUBLICIST] – [PUBLICIST] Attention blog.attentionusa.com
There are several metrics one uses to determine the success of a new venture on the web. Page views, user retention, and brand awareness are three of the most common, but there is a lesser known, and harder to quantify, indicator that suggests a new website is coming into its own: crazy emails from random strangers.
While many startups will receive their fair share of odd inbox effluvia once they've begun to attract attention, it is only sites with a serious potential for growth that attract the high-quality bizarro queries from correspondents with nonsensical sender addresses. I am happy to inform those of you who care about the health [...]
A fresh missive from our crazed right-wing emailer, Tony Caputo! (Cc: "Ann Coulter, Esquire"!) Today's topic: all those Jews down in Washington! For instance, this email asks, "ARE THE JEWISH KIDS GOING TO DENTAL, LAW AND MEDICAL SCHOOLS WHILE THE CHRISTIANS FIGHT THEIR WAR? WILL THE LIBERAL PRESS ALLOW THIS QUESTION? WILL THE ACLU, NOT LIKE THESE QUESTIONS?" There is also a long list of Jews in power, and Jews who have won Nobel prizes. You know who else made lists of Jews? That's right: Adrienne Rich.
Just kidding, I totally meant Hitler!
